Pebble
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: A short piece of fluff set during the game featuring Lloyd and Colette.


A short during game one shot featuring Lloyd and Colette. Set somewhere in the game where there's a grassy area with a small beach-like area within walking distance. Fluffy plotless nonsense as usual.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Namco own it I believe. I just enjoy writing fanfiction about it.

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Lloyd smiled and picked up the pretty pebble that had caught his attention as he was strolling along the sandy beach. By coincidence pebbles had come up in the conversation the group had been having earlier when he had returned to the campsite with a bundle of firewood. 

Colette had been sewing a penguinist feather into a hat she'd been working on earlier to give it a bit of character. She had made the hat out of a fabric she'd discovered in one of the Tethe'allan towns, one that she liked because it was warm and soft. She'd already made tops for him, Sheena and herself out of it and had had just enough fabric left over for two hats. She'd finished the one for herself a few nights ago and had been working on the second when he'd gotten back to the campsite.

When she was younger she had often done embroidery in the evenings, usually items related to Martel and the church, but she hadn't learnt how to sew larger items. No doubt her grandmother had insisted that she didn't need to sew practical things and had told her that embroidery pleased Martel or some such thing. Sheena on the other hand had only learnt practical sewing techniques. During the evenings when they rested before bed the two had taught the other the skills they knew and now could become scarily like Raine in her ruin mode when they found fabric merchants on their travels.

Lloyd laughed as he remembered the first thing Colette had made while on their journey. Zelos had been complaining every time that it was his turn to cook that his clothes would be ruined by food splashing on them. Colette had solved the problem by making him a pink apron with an amusing comment embroidered on it, saying that she thought that it seemed like it was one of his favourite colours when asked about her choice of fabric.

The hat that she had been working on was a soft shade of red, one that complimented the blue penguinist quill she'd added to it nicely. The quill had prompted the discussion about penginists with Raine stating that it was good that they'd not had to harm any of the creatures as, she'd discovered by studying them, they were a type of creature that appeared to choose mates for life. Instead of attacking them like they usually did when monsters appeared Colette had insisted on simply asking nicely if they could have a few quills to make the gloves they had needed at the time. Amazingly the penguinist had happily handed over some feathers, enough to make the gloves and a few extra which Colette had stashed away in her bag, saying that she was sure they'd be useful for something at some point on the quest.

Colette had looked up from her sewing and, while Lloyd had started to build the fire, had listened as Raine talked about the mating rituals of penguinists, which included the male offering the female he liked the prettiest pebble he could find.

She wasn't a penguinist but Lloyd thought that Colette would probably like the pebble he'd found on the beach. It would be another item to go in the collection of things she'd put together in a little drawstring bag she'd made. During the journey she'd collected items that others would probably find unremarkable but that she seemed to find fascinating. Pretty feathers from birds she'd not encountered before, leaves and flowers she'd carefully pressed to preserve and other such items.

He smiled as he spotted her on the beach, walking towards him with a smile on her face.

"I wondered where you'd gone," she called out when she was close enough for him to be able to hear her.

"I decided to go for a walk, I would have asked you if you wanted to come with me but you seemed busy with finishing that hat," he explained.

"It's finished now, here," she smiled as she placed the warm hat, complete with the penguinist feather carefully secured to it, on his head.

She giggled and told him he looked cute in it. He did an impression of one of the noises penguinists made then laughed.

"Do you want to watch the sunset with me?" he offered, sitting down on a comfortable looking rock.

"Sure," she blushed, settling herself beside him.

As the sun sank lower in the sky it began to get colder and, shyly, the little angel snuggled closer to the swordsman, enjoying the way he felt warm when the air around them was becoming chilly.

Lloyd put one arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. He put his other hand in his pocket and found the pebble he'd placed in it earlier. Without saying a word he took it out of his pocket and placed it gently into Colette's hand. Blushing slightly he wondered whether she remembered and would think of the conversation around the campsite earlier.

He smiled as she blushed and whispered quietly in his ear. Apparently she did.


End file.
